Web Design Update: October 28, 2025

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 18, October 28, 2025.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web
design and development.

++ISSUE 18 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: DRUPAL.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: HTML.
07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: TOOLS.
10: USABILITY.
11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

SECTION TWO:
12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

How to Test WCAG 1.4.10: Reflow (Level AA) - Easy Website
Accessibility Test You Can Do (Video)
By Equalize Digital.
"This video demonstrates how to test Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines success criterion 1.4.10: Reflow (Level AA) and shows a
failure due to sticky components covering the content, making it
unreadable…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFHTFgf-bzw

Testing Methods: No Keyboard Trap
By Dennis Deacon.
"WCAG 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap is a Level A conformance level Success
Criterion. It ensure that users navigating with a keyboard are never
trapped within a subsection of a page…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-no-keyboard-trap/

Testing Mobile Apps for Accessibility with Gian Wild, Ricky Onsman,
Rafal Charlampowicz, Paul van Workum, and Genevieve Lake (Video)
By OZeWAI.
"Experts discuss how to make every mobile app inclusive. Discover the
tools and methods behind inclusive app design.…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9UUtTjb19k

Mastering Alt Text - Enhancing Web Accessibility for Visually Impaired Users
By Alan Sleat.
"Here's some guidance from Alan Sleat, one of our Accessibility
Assessors who uses a screen reader, on how to improve your website,
posts, documents and presentations with alt text.…"
https://www.accessibility-services.co.uk/2025/10/21/mastering-alt-text-enhancing-web-accessibility-for-visually-impaired-users/

Alt Text or Image Description?
By Lauren Sherrard.
"Hi and thanks for tuning in. I'm Colleen Gratzer and in this episode
of Design Domination, I'm answering the question, Do logos need to be
accessible? Do logo designs need to meet accessibility requirements?
Stick around, because the answer will surprise you!…"
https://www.laurensherrard.com/blog/alt-text-or-image-description

Got Data, Now What? Storytelling Through Accessible Design
By Equal Entry.
"Based on Dr. Angela Young's A11yNYC talk, this explores how inclusive
design transforms raw data into stories everyone can understand and
act on…"
https://equalentry.com/got-data-now-what-storytelling-through-accessible-design/

Accessibility Isn't Just for Screen Readers, Dad Water Steve and Gary (Video)
By Equalize Digital.
"In this episode, we talk about the misconception that accessibility
primarily focuses on helping blind users, and share a wide variety of
things website owners can do that may not necessarily benefit blind
users, but that nonetheless greatly enhance overall accessibility"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1FuppExYCQ

Do Logos Need to Be Accessible?
By Creative Boost.
"Do logos need to be accessible and meet the WCAG accessibility
requirements? The answer will surprise you! Find out how to make your
logo designs more accessible and reach a wider audience and how that
helps your branding work…"
https://creative-boost.com/do-logos-need-to-be-accessible/

The Microsoft 365 Features for Creating Accessible Content
By Josh Crawford.
"This article explores the built-in accessibility features in
Microsoft 365 that enable content creators to produce accessible
workplace communications. It covers practical tools including the
Accessibility Checker, alt text for images, proper document structure,
PowerPoint subtitles and layouts, and Teams features such as live
captions and meeting transcripts, demonstrating how these features
help ensure content reaches all colleagues…"
https://www.digitalaccesstraining.com/pages/articles?p=the-microsoft-365-features-for-creating-accessible-content

How to Write an Accessibility Statement in 2025, with Examples
By Chris Hinds.
"Need to write an accessibility statement? But, you're not sure where
to start, and you need examples? You're in the right place…"
https://equalizedigital.com/how-to-write-an-accessibility-statement-in-2025-with-examples/

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 Approved as ISO/IEC
International Standard
By Shawn Lawton Henry.
"W3C standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 has been
approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) -
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical
Committee (JTC 1) - Information technology as ISO/IEC 40500:2025…"
https://www.w3.org/press-releases/2025/wcag22-iso-pas/

Eyeing Accessibility Deadline, States Root Out Ancient Web Issues
By Colin Wood.
"One state official said his goal isn't only to remove inaccessible
content, but retrain staff so that old design mistakes don't need to
be revisited…"
https://statescoop.com/government-web-accessibility-deadline/

Why Accessibility Breaks Between Design and Development
By Alicia Jarvis.
"Accessibility often starts strong in design - with thoughtful colour
contrast, readable typography, and inclusive interaction flows…"
https://www.alicia.design/post/why-accessibility-breaks-between-design-development

OpenAI, ARIA, and SEO: Making the Web Worse
By Adrian Roselli.
In this article Adrian delivers a compelling critique of OpenAI's new
Atlas browser for encouraging misuse of ARIA tags, intended for
accessibility, to help its ChatGPT agent better parse websites, which
will worsen web accessibility and fuel SEO abuse. He highlights
OpenAI's poor understanding of accessibility standards and warns that
this approach could lead to further degradation of web quality and
user experience.
https://adrianroselli.com/2025/10/openai-aria-and-seo-making-the-web-worse.html

Atlas Ableism
By Steve Faulkner.
"…I will state with confidence that from what I have experienced with
ChatGPT Atlas browser It does not conform to:
* Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
* EN 301 549 (PDF)
* WCAG 2.2
* European accessibility act
It's an inaccessible piece of software built on the sweat of other's
work much like OpenAI's other business offerings…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/10/23/atlas-ableism/

Can Generative AI Create Accessible Websites?
By Ruchi Panchanadikar, Mitali Shrikant Bhosekar, and Emma Dixon.
"…The inconsistencies observed in inaccurate element generation, lack
of contextual awareness, and failure to meet clearly stated
requirements suggest that these tools are not yet reliable enough for
full automation in accessibility workflows. Consequently, human
oversight remains indispensable for AI-supported accessibility
practices and full WCAG compliance…"
https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3663547.3759755

Yes, Let's Teach LLMs Accessibility, but Also the Companies Using Them
By Hidde de Vries.
"A prominent vendor of accessibility tooling made the case for
teaching AI agents about accessibility, because developers use them
and therefore this teaching is a way to shift left.…"
https://hidde.blog/teaching-llms-or-companies/

Understanding Compliance and Conformance in the EAA Era
By Matthew Luken.
"The global digital accessibility landscape is complex. Directives,
transpositions, regulations, standards-what are they, how do they
differ, and how do they fit into the bigger picture?…"
https://www.deque.com/blog/understanding-compliance-and-conformance-in-the-eaa-era/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The New Progress() Function in CSS
By Amit Merchant.
"…With the new CSS progress() function, you can express 'how far' the
viewport width has moved between a minimum and maximum size, and map
that directly to opacity…"
https://www.amitmerchant.com/the-progress-function-css/

CSS Layout: Flexbox, Grid, Media Queries and Container Queries
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"CSS provides a variety of services for web content: In the previous
chapter, we used it to format content: to change colors, typefaces,
etc. In this chapter, we will use it to lay out content: to place HTML
elements on a page…"
https://www.2ality.com/2025/10/css-layout


+03: DRUPAL.

A New Era of Digital Accessibility: The EAA and its Implications for Drupal
By Mike Gifford.
"The digital world is becoming increasingly regulated, and for good
reason. New legislation like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is
setting a clear standard for digital inclusion, ensuring that
everyone, regardless of ability, has equal access to digital products
and services. For the Drupal community, this isn't a challenge, but an
opportunity to showcase what we do best - building an open, accessible
web for all…"
https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/a-new-era-of-digital-accessibility-the-eaa-and-its-implications-for-drupal

State of Drupal Presentation (October 2025)
By Dries Buytaert.
"In my DrupalCon Vienna keynote, I talk about how Drupal is adapting
to an AI-driven web through AI-enabled visual editing, site templates,
autonomous agents, and workflow orchestration."
https://dri.es/state-of-drupal-presentation-october-2025


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

New Telco UX Research: 3 High-Level Takeaways from 3,500 Hours of Testing
By Kathryn Reeves.
"Despite being a multibillion-dollar industry, telco struggles with basic UX…"
https://baymard.com/blog/telco-ux-research


+05: EVENTS.

A11yTO Conference 2025 and Networking/Socializing
October 30, 2025.
Tokyo, Japan
https://www.meetup.com/a11ytokyo/events/311557255/

Common Mistakes: Easily Missed or Misunderstood Accessible Design Requirements
November 6, 2025.
Online
https://accessibilityonline.org/ao/session/?id=111190

The Born-Accessible Design Approach: Cost-Effective, Inclusive, Compliant
November 25, 2025.
Online
https://www.accessibilityonline.org/cioc-508/session?id=111186

OzCHI 2025
November 29-December 3, 2025.
Sydney, Australia
https://www.ozchi.org/2025/

International Day of People with Disability
December 3, 2025.
Global
https://www.idpwd.com.au/

World Braille Day
January 4, 2026.
Global
https://www.un.org/en/observances/braille-day


+06: HTML.

What's an Interactive Element?
By Manuel Matuzović.
"Two years ago, I wrote an article about the dialog element. I tested
where focus goes when you open a modal dialog via the showModal()
method. I tried different combinations of elements and attributes to
see what happens because back in 2023, the behaviour was very
inconsistent. In one of my tests, I put the tabindex attribute on the
dialog element…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2025/whats-an-interactive-element

Updated Organizational Chart Examples Using HTML and CSS
By John F Croston III.
"Back in 2016 I was looking for the best way to code an organizational
chart that was accessible and thought it was time to publish an update
blog post with an additional examples and some updates. My
organizational chart example page now has three examples instead of
the two examples from before…"
http://www.jfciii.com/blog/2025/10/20/updated-organizational-chart-examples-using-html-and-css/


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

An Introduction to JavaScript Expressions
By Mat Marquis.
"Hey, I'm Mat, but 'Wilto' works too - I'm here to teach you JavaScript…"
https://css-tricks.com/an-introduction-to-javascript-expressions/

JavaScript For Everyone: Iterators
By Mat Marquis.
"Here is a lesson on Iterators: iterables implement the iterable
iteration interface, and iterators implement the iterator iteration
interface. Sounds confusing? Mat breaks it all down in the artic…"
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/10/javascript-for-everyone-iterators/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Access Board Shutdown
By U.S. Access Board.
"Due to the lack of appropriations, all Access Board services are suspended…"
https://www.access-board.gov/about/policy/shutdown.html


+09: TOOLS.

Image Description Toolkit 3.0 Available
By Kelly Ford.
"I have a vastly updated version of my Image Description Toolkit (IDT)
available…"
https://theideaplace.net/image-description-toolkit-3-0-available/

A WCAG Journey - a Small Portion
By Morgan Murrah.
"An interactive website using WCAG JSON as content…"
https://airbr.github.io/WCAG-JSON-experience/


+10: USABILITY.

Overflow Menu Icons (Video)
By Kate Kaplan.
"Overflow menu icons are widely recognized, but hiding key actions
inside them can hurt usability. Use them for secondary actions, and
always prioritize clarity and proximity…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_miuSgQv8

Designing for Millions of Users (feat. Jay Dutta, Global Head of UX,
Deutsche Bank) (Video)
By Nielsen Norman Group.
"In this episode, Jay Dutta-Global Head of UX at Deutsche Bank-shares
how designing at scale isn't just about reaching millions, but about
preserving depth: of empathy, culture, and context…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6qYeOh5ikw


+11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

The Present and Potential Future of Progressive Image Rendering
by Jake Archibald.
"Progressive image formats allow the decoder to create a partial
rendering when only part of the image resource is available…"
https://jakearchibald.com/2025/present-and-future-of-progressive-image-rendering/

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Drupal Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

HTML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html

Information Architecture Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

WebWaste & Sustainability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html

XML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


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+ SIGN OFF.

Until next time,

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
mailto:lcar...@d.umn.edu


[Issue ends.]